At first he was a bit confused—­“groggy,” Private Drew called it—­but he soon came around, and though he could not walk because of the injury to his side, he was soon made comparatively comfortable and taken to a hospital just behind the lines.

As this was near the house where Charlie and Blake were quartered, they could easily visit their chum each day, which they did for the week that he was kept in bed.

As Charles had surmised, the films in the cameras were not damaged, and were removed to be sent back for development.  The broken tripod was repaired sufficiently to be usable again, and then the boys began to prepare for their next experience.

The engagement in which Joe had been hurt was a comparatively small one, but it netted a slight advance for the French and American troops, and enabled a little straightening of their trench line to be made, a number of German dug-outs having been demolished and their machine guns captured.  This, for a time at least, removed a serious annoyance to those who had to occupy the front line trenches.

Though Joe improved rapidly in the hospital, for some time his side was very sore.  He had to turn his camera over to Charlie, and it was fortunate the lanky helper had been brought along, for the work would have proved too much for Blake alone.

Following that memorable, because it was the first, going “over the top,” there was a period of comparative quiet.  Of course there was sniping day and night, and not a few casualties from this form of warfare, but it was to be expected and “all in the day’s work,” as Private Drew called it.

Blake, Joe and Charlie were complimented by Captain Black for their bravery in going so close to the front line in getting the pictures; then he added: 

“You can have it a little easier for a while.  What we want now are some scenes of trench life as it exists before an engagement.  So get ready for that.”

This Blake and Charlie did, while Joe sat in the sun and tried to learn French from a little boy, the son of the couple in whose house the moving picture boys were quartered.

Though the American and French soldiers, with here and there a Canadian or English regiment, lived so near the deadly front line, there were periods, some lengthy, of quiet and even amusement.  Of course, the deaths lay heavy on all the soldiers when they allowed themselves to think of their comrades who had perished.  And more than one gazed with wet eyes at the simple wooden crosses marking the graves “somewhere in France.”

But officers and men alike knew how fatal to spirit it was to dwell on the sad side of war.  So, as much as possible, there was in evidence a sense of lightness and a feeling that all was for the best—­that it must be for the best.

Now and then there were night raids, and occasionally parties of German prisoners were brought in.  Blake and Charlie made moving pictures of these as they were taken back to the cages.  Most of the Germans seemed glad to be captured, which meant that they were now definitely out of the terrible scenes of the war.  They would be held in safety until after the conflict, and they seemed to know this, for they laughed and joked as they were filmed.  They appeared to like it, and shouted various words of joking import in their guttural voices to the boys.